Al-Qaida in Iraq claims deadly attacks

Originally published March 20, 2013 at 12:00 am
Updated March 20, 2013 at 5:48 am

People inspect a car destroyed in a car bomb attack close to one of the main gates to the heavily-fortified Green Zone, which houses major government offices and the embassies of several countries, including the United States and Britain in Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, March 19, 2013.

An al-Qaida affiliated group in Iraq has claimed responsibility for bloody attacks that killed dozens of people across the country a day earlier.

In a statement posted Wednesday on a militant website, the Islamic State of Iraq, al-Qaida’s Iraqi branch, said the Tuesday attacks were in revenge for the executions and “massacres” of convicted Sunni inmates held in Iraqi prisons

The al-Qaida statement warned the Shiite-led government to stop executing Sunni prisoners or “expect more bad events … and seas of blood.”

Insurgents set off a string of car bombs and other explosions in different parts of the country ahead of the 10th anniversary of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, killing 65.